March 18 (IDB.50 Coalition) – As the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in Medellin, Colombia, a coalition of 42 civil society organizations from across Latin America is calling it to account for its failure to eradicate poverty and inequality across the region.
In a parallel alternative event to the Bank’s March 25-27 meeting, the “IDB-50 Campaign” plans to expose the institution’s negative impact on the integral development of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Campaign will emphasize three aspects of IDB failure: First, the Bank’s unsuccessful development model, which has increased inequality and human rights violations across the region. Second, the privileges accorded by the IDB to the private sector to the detriment of the needs of local communities, thereby increasing inequality in every country in the region. Third, the Bank’s “populist” discourse evidenced by slogans such as “Opportunities for All”, which are far from the institution’s actual practice, and have not had an effect on the persistent exclusion of large parts of the region’s population – especially women, indigenous communities and people of African descent.
“Considering that the primary objective for the creation of the Inter-American Development Bank was to speed up the process of both individual and collective sustainable economic and social development in its member countries,” says Diego RodrÃguez from the Argentinian non-profit, M’Biguá, Citizenship & Environmental Justice, “it’s reasonable to ask: How is it that after 50 years of work by the so-called experts do we still have alarming levels of poverty, destitution and inequality across the region?”
The IDB-50 Campaign points out that what the Bank claims are “successes”, “achieved goals” or ” learned lessons” are indicators of how far it is out of touch with the region’s reality. It says that for the IDB the current financial crisis constitutes an opportunity to expand its presence in the region through new loans that purport to reduce the effects of the crisis. “This new wave of loans, to which the IDB will completely abandon itself, will only increase the debt burden of Latin American nations that are paying for a crisis they have not caused,” states Héctor Moncayo from the Institute of Alternative Legal Services (ILSA) in Colombia.
“As to social rights, the inadequate participatory mechanisms of civil society in the decision-making process; the non-observance of the rights of indigenous peoples; and the consequences of the liberalization and flexibility of labor and the public service market, have all generated a profound rejection of the Bank’s practices by the social organizations and movements that comprise this Coalition,” maintains MarÃa José Romero of the Third World Institute in Uruguay.
“In the face of irrefutable evidence, the shameful inequality that has co-existed, and even fed off of the IDB’s negligence, will become the hallmark of its 50th anniversary in Medellin,” comments Vince McElhinney from the U.S. based NGO, Bank Information Center. “Uninvited to the lavish celebration are the millions whose lives have been shortened, diminished or ruined by the Bank’s timidity to confront the tenacious inequities that divide classes, ethnicities, races and gender against each other. Faced with a fifty year legacy littered with broken promises of development, the IDB can only look forward to avoid accountability.”
The Coalition will offer panel discussions on the issues, academic analysis, case studies and testimonials by groups and individuals affected by IDB financed projects. People and organizations will have the chance to voice their concerns on the financial crisis and the challenges of sustainability, along with economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, together calling that 50 YEARS OF FINANCING INEQUALITY IS ENOUGH!
For more information contact:
ADRIANA MUÑOZ CABRALES – Communications
IDB 50 Campaign, Bogotá, Colombia.
comunicaciones@frentebid2009.org
www.frentebid2009.org
(57-1) 312 574 2429 – 648 4229
GABRIEL STRAUTMAN, Rede Brasil, Brasilia, Brazil.
gabriel@rbrasil.org.br
(55) 61 3 321 6108 – 33231266
JOSEPH MUTTI, Amazon Watch, San Francisco, CA, U.S.,
joseph@amazonwatch.org
(415) 287-9600 x23, 510 566-4346 cell
REBECCA HARRIS, Bank Information Center (BIC), Washington, D.C.
rharris@bicusa.org
(202) 737-7752.
HÉCTOR MONCAYO, Instituto de Servicios Legales Alternativos (ILSA), Colombia
globaliz_ilsa@etb.net.co
(57-1) 288 4772 – 288-4437
